Air to Air aerial photo of a Homer Air Cessna 206 bushplane over the Kenai Mountains.
When traveling in the ‘lower 48’ states one thing that has always surprised me is how the roads just seem to stop at nothing. Driving through the national parks especially I can hardly believe the places you can go without stepping out of the car – thinking especially of Glacier National Park and Yosemite. Those roads etched into the cliffs winding up and down the mountains. Arguably there are some impressive feats of road building in Alaska too. But for me, I’ll always try and find a way to glide past the peaks in the air before I beat my subaru up on some potholed gravel road through the mountains.
A bushplane flying past the end of the road in Homer, Alaska.
A couple weeks ago I posted a very brief note about a photo shoot I had just completed in Prince William Sound, Alaska documenting the crude oil that is still present on the beaches there. This was done on assignment for the World Wildlife Fund who is working to bring attention to the sad fact that 20 years after the oil was spilled, 19 years after the cleanup was ‘completed’, this toxic substance is still there, still contaminating this particularly beautiful environment.
Twenty years is a long time.
I got to thinking about this.
The place where we photographed and collected some of this oil was several feet below the high tide mark. Every twelve hours the ocean rises up to high tide and washes that beach, sometimes vigorously with wave and currents. I did a quick calculation – It’s been 20 years, 7,300 days, 14,600 high tides and the oil is still there just a few inches below the surface layer of rocks. This is truly amazing. It’s hard to comprehend the effects this oil must still be having on the environment in Prince William Sound as it slowly and constantly leeches out of the gravel into the water.
This sobering thought has changed the way I look at the oil industry that we collectively support. As long as we are buying oil in its myriad of products the tankers will keep transporting it. Shipping is safer now than it was in 1989, but by no means is it without risk. As we watch gas prices climb I hope that it will act as a reminder to us of the real cost of oil. What is paid at the pump is a drop in the ocean of the real costs associated with this industry, and we all bear it in many ways. Some sly ones such as health issues from pollution, others are obvious such as the devastation of the environment in such a precious place as Prince William Sound.
It’s clear that the oil industry is not good for us. What can one person do? I think we each need to answer this for ourselves. My approach is two fold: First I’m improving my awareness of consumption. What do I do that consumes oil or its byproducts? How do I minimize this consumption? Secondly, I am working on alternative energy sources to replace my oil consumption.
Below is an embedded slideshow of the 138 images from this trip that I’ve uploaded to the online photo archive. Mostly what you’ll see is a lot of beautiful scenery, mountains, glacier ice, whales, sea lions, sunsets and moon rises, then some documentation of the oily rock collection.
Special thanks to David Janka with the charter vessel ‘Auklet’ who made this trip not only possible, but also a very comfortable and productive three days in Prince William Sound. If you are looking for a boat to charter in Prince William Sound I can strongly recommend the Auklet with David as captain.
Two weeks before I actually saw it myself, I started to hear about this photo which came out in the Patagonia winter catalog. It’s been fun hearing from friends, both close and distant, who were excited to stumble across the photo.
For those unfamiliar with the Patagonia catalog legacy I’ll tell you a little about it. Basically, it’s a product catalog for an outdoor adventure apparel manufacturer. But instead of just filling the pages with photos of the products, the focus is on portraying the lifestyle that the products are created for. Drawing from adventure photographers worldwide, the editors are consistently able to produce catalogs with such inspiring images that many of us keep old copies in our shelves right alongside favorite magazines. In a recent email one of the editors at Patagonia told me they filter through over 80,000 photos each year!
The skiier, Erika Klaar, is a friend from Homer out on our local Baycrest trails last winter. If you look closely you’ll see the trees near Erika are blurred from motion. This image was one of just a couple out of several hundred that actually came out well, Erika is sharp, but the trees are blurring as she races by. The effect was achieved by chasing her on skis while shooting photos wildly hoping that with some good fortune I’d come home with one good frame. We are both excited the image made the cut and I’m looking forward to trying this technique again. Photo shoots are my favorite exercise.
Keep an eye out for the Heart of Winter catalog from Patagonia, rumor has it the Alaska surfing scene might be set to make an appearance there.
The annual Alaska Federation of Natives Convention recently took place in Anchorage, Alaska. This event brings Alaskan natives from all over the state to Anchorage for a weekend. The non-profit Renewable Resources Coalition wanted to share a few messages with the attendees.
Kevin Co of Frontier Media Arts was tasked with developing the campaign just days before the event. The project in his own words :
“We decided that this would be a great time to use non-traditional media, so I called up the folks at Mobile Ad Alaska to see if we could rent out their truck. What we ended up with what can best be described as a mobile 10 sided billboard that could be moved around to target different flows of people throughout the event.”
I was excited that Kevin chose to work with my Bristol Bay photos on this project. Unfortunately, I was busy at home the weekend of the convention, but Kevin spent some time in Anchorage and captured a nice video showing the finals steps of the project.
